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006: The imdb Top 250 Challenge

I read Pete Davidson’s post about being film illiterate earlier and it struck a chord in me. You see I’m not flm iliterate in the way the Pete says he is, but I’m nowhere near the level I want to be. Most of my favourite films are placed within the ‘cult’ category with a few being animations and some even having foreign dialogue; how indie and cool am I?

But there’s so many films I haven’t seen, namely foreign classics and what some would call the oldies. The recent facebook quiz that swept through my friends list proved this, with my results being disappointing low compared to others. I’m not juts basing this on some sort of rivalry, it’s all about personal discovery and my need to broaden my knowledge over a genre of entertainment that I love.

So I was musing on how to do this as I generally am a very lazy person, so sourcing and watching random films seemed like a lot of work with little reward. Then a good Twitter friend of mine, @EEC_Gray (he’s protected but click follow anyway because he’s a thoroughly interesting and funny chap. Double Wins), told me of his plan to watch the imdb top 250 throughout the entire year. I think this is a brilliant idea and I’m going to steal it for my own gain. Worth pointing out the now that I have screen copied the list as of today into a huge word document that will soon become a Page at the top of this blog as it changes daily. Something I learned the hard way.

We need some rules here:1. I’m not going to review every one as a seperate entity as that would be the majority of my oneaday.2. I’m going to try and watch them in order but if one of them pops up on Sky then I’ll watch it then and there.3. I’m going to re-watch the films I have seen, even if I have watched them a thousand times.

I think that’s the rules. Well, enough to get me started, anyway.

DISCLAIMER: A large percentage of these films will be watched on DVD. If I don’t own them I will seek to borrow them off of friends. An unknown percentage will be watched on TV when they become available. However, the majority will have to be streamed or downloaded online, something that I don’t really enjoy doing. I will delete most after being watched, even buying the ones that really impress me. Sorry if this bothers anyone.

I was lucky enough to do a film studies module at uni; also, I had a dad who loves classic world cinema. This means I’ve been exposed to some of the cinematic greats, and am always happy to recommend a few.

First, though, where is this IMDB list and what’s on it?

You have to watch DW Griffiths, Fritz Lang, Ingmar Berman, those sort of types. Films like The Third Man or The Incredible Shrinking Man or the original Manchurian Candidate. More recently, classic 70s films like The China Syndrome or Duel or The Conversation or Chinatown. Maybe also look for screenwriters as much as directors (Raymond Chandler’s had a few adapted, and also wrote The Blue Dahlia for screen).

I’m looking for more of this. The list is in a link in the blog and it does feature a good range of films. I’m using it as a starting point for a lot of directors/writers that I haven’t give enough time to; The Rope by Hitchcock is number 1 and I have not seen many if any of his films in my later years.

Ha ha, failure is a very strong possibility but I’ve got to give it a chance. I’ve seen all the films on your list but have probably missed so many that you have seen. That’s what’s so exciting, there’s just so much out there to view.

Top idea – having looked at the top 250 there’s loads that I haven’t seen, but not sure if I could get through them. Some of the entries are a bit strange (Ratatouille, Hotel Rwanda?), but it’s all subjective obviously. Will definitely be following this with interest..